The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1887-05-25
Pslmsr and Daily Left Alone as Rival Mana
gers in the Same Field.
The Rage for Comic 0psra Continues ut Fever
Heat in the Metropolis.
The Gossip of the Hour-TaImage-B Beard.
the Painter-sunday Opening of the
Museum of Art.
Especial Correspondence of the Sentinel

portant deaths which happened stimuli
taneously-the demise OF Italian opera and
the end of Wallack's Comedy Company.
The latter may be safely said to have
passed away when it left its old home for
shelter at Daily's. For two weeks it may
IiDger on, painfully gasping for its last
breath, but practically Wallack's company
is Renaissance of the American
drama. 1t is pitiful that its last
lingering hours could not have been
less painful. Its Pickering efforts
to exist out of its home must be mortify-
ing to it's head, as it certainly is disap-
pointing to all admirers of its brilliant Ca
reer, and, in fact, to all lovers of the re.
fined drama. The play chosen for the last
representations, 1.-THE Romance of Poor
Young Man" was little removed from the
melodramstic school, which was the final
ruin of Wallicks. It belongs to a school
whose decadence it marked ten years or
more ago; and why 1t should have been
revived, except to give Mr. Kyrle Bellew a
better chance than he had at Wallack's, no.
body present at the first presentation could
divine. 1t is long, slow and dreary,
and is without strong characters; 1t
has only one strong situation, aud
that situation is hackneyed and not well
led up to, nor happily explained subse-
quently. 1t was absolutely disgraceful to
present old John Gilbert, one of the few
actors who have lived more than fifty years
on the stage without creating a suspicion
that they flag superfluous, in part with
out sentiment, humor or pathos, and re-
quiriDg no ability whatever to present.
Mr.. Gilbert neither looked nor felt at
home; and one who knew the genial old
man in Wallack's could not but feel that
he recognized the humiliation of the situa-
ton. Mr.. Wallack and his sons were no.
where to be seen, and that was a relief to
those who knew that their presence on
such an occasion would be sadly
commented upon. l have not the slight
est doubt that Mr.. DAILY rendered his house
to his rival manager IN the truest feeling OF
professional kindness; that Mr.. Wallack
accepted Its use for the closing fortnight of
his disastrous season in the same amiable
spirit in which he spoke recently at Mr..
Daly's supper on the 1C0th night of "The
Tanning of the Shrew;" but, nevertheless,
the public felt that the older company was
dying in the home of its younger and sue
cessful rival, and stayed away rather than
behold the end. The opening house was
small-it was not half fflIed-and the other
performances since Monday night have
been less numerously attended.
The retirement of Mr.. Wallack leaves
Mr.. A. N. Palmer and Mr.. DAILY the only
rivals in New York theatrical manage
ment. Mr.. Abbey, at Wallack's, proposes
in the fall to enter the same field and con-
tend with them for supremacy; but for
the present, DAILY and Palmer are the only
who vaf San be re tbs
field of comedy. At present they
are pitted against each other in Bos-
ton for two weeks, and both companies are
playing to full houses. After that they
play for SIX weeks to rival houses in Chi
cago, with ''Jim, the Penman" (once seen
there) against Tanning of the Shrew."
1t will be curious contest to watch, and
will be watched with close attention by all
interested in the drama Mr.. George Par
sons Lathrop tells me that Mr.. Palmer has
determined to play "Elaine" again, and,
probably, at Chicago when DAILY puts on
1.-THE Shrew." Both are beautifully
mounted, but-well, 'Elaine" is not by
Shakespeare.
1t may turn out that Italian opera is not
dead, but only sleeping; bat, with the de-
parture of Patti, il is believed that the
Italian school of music has taken long
farewell, if not a final departure, from
America. The short season given here a
month ago was practically mere squirt,
and its success was due chiefly to the COM
bination OF Patti and Scalchi in familiar
operas. That season was financially sue
cessful; so successful, indeed, as to tempt
Mr.. Abbey to announce two more per-
was given, and that was at loss. The
causes of the failure were many, but the
chief one was that many of those
who attend the opera for fashionable
reasons had left the city, or had stored their
opera costumes in safety vaults-a simple
but potent obstacle to even PATHS success.
And so with the only great sopranos de-
parture Italian opera died, or went into
protracted insensibility. Meantime, the
rage for comic opera in English is at its
height here. Colonel McCaull is filling,
with the BLACK Huzzar," the theater to
which Wallack, even with the old comedies,
could not lure the public, at the Stand
ard Theater MIR. Duff has been 80 greatly
successful with ga Trip to Africa" with
| handsome Lillian Russell and beautiful
| Madeline Lucille in the cast, that he has
! announced his intention of devoting the
| Standards stage wholly to comic opera.
at the Star a new venture called "The
| Pyramids" by new authors, is in the pop
ular comic opera vein, and, without pos
| sessing any musical merit or indicating
any literary talent on the part of the Ii.
brettest, seems to have met with some
measure of success. And, finally, at the
Casino they are playing "Erminie," the
worst of all operas produced there, now in
4 Da
fences which crowd every part of the house
Vale Italian operal Vive English. French
and Dutcn comic operal
The surplus of comic opera is not greater
than the overflow of singers who think
they can sing and act every role in them.
Young women positively besige the lob
bies and stage doors of the houses when
comic opera is played, begging to be taker
| on even in the chorus. j was talking with
Colonel John McCaull, at Wallack s, the
other evening when he was requested IL
give hearing to a young lady who had
| beautiful voice. Certainly said The
Colonel; "that is just what we want. Lee
her come on Thursday next at noon; Their,
are a dozen others coming that day" The
lady's friend went away apparently pleased
l asked the Colonel later how the tria
had resulted. "She has a clear, thir
voice, and we put her on at $15 to sing IL
the choruses where she Will have a goo(
summer school and a chance for small
parts next season. / met James @. Duff OF
Tuesday in the lobby Of the Standard
There were four yo1ng women with musi
rolls in their hands, waiting for him h
turn them over to his leader for the trial o
their voices. "They come not in singl
numbers, but in battalions," he said to me
soto voce. "Some of them have the grand
est assurance" he added. "'You know
says one, 4 sing in Italian Anothe
comes, chaperoned by her mother, aud
| mother In ae disastrous tn The harmonv n